What is the point of praising the Buddha?

Kyohei Mikawa, PhD

Minister, Rissho Kosei-kai of Los Angeles

In the Lotus Sutra, praising the Buddha means to praise the true nature of your life--the power of life within you. This power is universally shared in all lives throuhgout the universe and has one simple characteristic: to move toward the end of suffering of all living beings. Praising the buddha turnes out to praise you. This is the point of the first chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (the opening part of the Threefold Lotus Sutra) titled "The Virtuous Practices."

The first weened of January, several members of RKLA gathered to start our annual "mid-winter sutra recitation practice." And the reciation included this opening chapter, which shows how wonderful Buddha's virtues are and how difficult it would be for us to engage in the same selfless practice that he did. Prasing the Buddha in this chapter first creates the value of becoming a buddha. Accomplishing an easy task that anyone can do does not give you a sense of meaning and purpose. But a difficult task that only selected people may be able of accomplish would give you a greater purse and meaning, and longing for attanting that supreme goal. By praising the Buddha, the sutra aims at us students of the Lotus Sutra to first see the great value of being or becoming a buddha. Moreover, as I touched on in the beginning of this essay, the most amazing thing about this is that after setting up the value of buddhahood, what the Lotus Sutra reveals is that each one of us is the one who can become a buddha because we have already continued our selfless practice and compassion in innnumerable lifecycles in the past before being born as who you are in the present lifecycle. The Lotus Sutra's therapeutic method transforms the meaning of who you are by revealing the boundless context of your present life that you are unable to see. Whether this is a historical fact or metaphorical invitation, how would it make you feel to embrace who you are as a buddha-in-training and living as a budha-to-be in every single moment of your life?